DULUTH — A member of one of the wealthiest families in the United States has demolished seven homes on Park Point after buying them well above market value, igniting rumors over what will be built in their place and raising concerns over property taxes among longtime residents of the 7-mile-long sandbar.
Over the last year, North Shore LS, LLC has spent a combined $4.6 million on seven addresses on Park Point — $2 million more than the combined estimated market value of all 14 parcels put together, according to St. Louis County property tax and sales data.
Kathy Cargill is listed as the North Shore LS manager on business filings available through the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State.
According to public records, Kathy Cargill is married to James R. Cargill II, who Forbes said is one of 12 billionaire heirs to the Minnesota-based agribusiness Cargill, the country's second-largest private company. The global food and agricultural company was started by his great-grandfather William Wallace Cargill, and the family still owns approximately 90% of the company. The magazine said James Cargill had a wealth of $5 billion in 2023, ranking him 223rd on its list of wealthiest Americans.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Kathy Cargill largely declined to answer questions by the News Tribune, citing privacy and safety concerns. She would not say what was planned for the properties, and she threatened legal action if anything ended up in the newspaper.
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She emphasized that the properties belonged to her and her entity — North Shore LS — not the Cargill family at large.
The properties are clumped in two locations on Park Point — the lake side of Minnesota Avenue just past the 12th Street Beach and on both the lake and harbor side of the 2900 block of Minnesota Avenue near Lafayette Community Center. Each structure on those properties, and most of the trees, have been removed.
So far, no permits beyond capping utilities and the demolition of homes have been filed with the city for those properties.
Coral McDonnell, 83, and Brooks Anderson, 90, live in one of two homes bordering both the North Shore LS property and Lafayette Community Center.
McDonnell said the purchase and removal of the properties have spurred “a lot of curiosity” among neighbors. “And a lot of worry,” McDonnell said. “People don’t necessarily know what’s going to happen.”
Anderson, who has lived in the house since 1974, said he has seen the neighborhood become more of a “part-time playground for rich folks” as the old, modest homes are replaced with mansions. Vacation rentals have multiplied, too.
And while he isn’t sure how involved the Cargills will be in the Park Point community, he hopes they will be.
“I expect they’ll do nice things, and we’ll be happy to have them next door,” Anderson said.
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North Shore LS in 2016 also purchased a condo on Water Street and, in 2021, purchased a mansion farther down Minnesota Avenue. The condo has an estimated market value of $533,000 and was sold for $650,000 at the time. The Park Point mansion has an estimated market value of $1,380,500 and was sold for $2,495,000, the price it was listed for sale at a few months prior. It is undergoing extensive remodeling and landscaping work, according to permits filed with the city. Several other Park Point properties were also bought by companies connected to Kathy and James Cargill but have since been sold.
“The family found several spots that they bought and sold because they just didn’t find the right property,” said Dawn Buck, president of the Park Point Community Club. “So maybe they know they found the right property.”
The homes that we bought were pieces of crap.
Dave Poulin, 81, has lived in his South Lake Avenue house his entire life, now just one block away from Anderson, McDonnell and several of the now-bare North Shore LS properties.
Poulin said that while he hates to see old houses torn down, he worries more about what it means for a city that already has a housing shortage.
“The issue is not the homes themselves,” Poulin said. “It’s less accessible for the average person to live in this place, and this was a very unusual place to live in.”
Park Point, he said, was gentrifying.
Cargill said the conditions of the houses were such that it might be best they were gone.
“The homes that we bought were pieces of crap,” Cargill said. “I couldn’t imagine living in any of them.”
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What effect the sales might have on property taxes is among residents’ concerns.
Buck said the county assessor’s office addressed those fears at a recent meeting about upcoming assessments.
“Those sales we have right now currently are outliers — those will be thrown out,” Buck said. “But if the trend continues and people continue to move to Park Point and pay a certain amount, those are then comparable and no longer outliers. And I think maybe that’s a concern or fear.”
Anderson said that’s nothing new for Park Point.
“That’s gone on for quite a while,” Anderson said. “I think this is a very modest home, and I think we pay more taxes than we would on the hillside, and maybe that will accelerate a little bit, but that’s been going for a long time.”
While Buck hasn’t met Cargill, she said Cargill called her a while back, offering to donate extra pavers she had to the community garden.
Buck hopes the family joins in on community events and neighborhood environmental issues, noting the ongoing beach erosion issues.
“It’s a fabulous place to live,” Buck said. “I mean, it’s absolutely stunning, and it’s dynamic, but we need to care for it, and I think people don’t want to be taxed out. So there’s still a lot of fear about that.”
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This story originally contained an incorrect sale price for 2931 S. Lake Ave. in the map, and an incorrect combined sale price for 2931, 2935 and 2929 S. Lake Ave. in a photo caption. 2931 S. Lake Ave. was sold for $597,000 and 2931, 2935 and 2929 S. Lake Ave. were sold for a combined $2.02 million. It was updated at 6:50 p.m. Dec. 15 with the correct figures.
This story originally contained a misspelling of Coral McDonnell's name. It was updated at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 16 with the proper spelling. The News Tribune regrets the errors.
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